John Hance was born in 1838 in Tennessee. After the Civil War he traveled west and settled at the Grand Canyon to try his hand at prospecting. When this didn’t work out, he became a trail builder, guide, and provided shelter for visitors to the Grand Canyon. Over time he became a legendary figure, telling stories of how he dug the canyon himself or how his horse could cross the canyon from rim to rim by galloping on the fog. His stories were implausible, but that was part of his charm, what was expected, and the added entertainment with him as a guide.

He led Theodore Roosevelt, who affectionately called him “the greatest liar on earth,” down into the canyon in 1903. In the early 1900s he was housed by the Fred Harvey company in exchange for telling stories until they had a falling out in 1914.